Marvel the Game
by Billen
Summary: Clinton Francis Barton, or just Clint and his best friend Natalia Alianovna Romanova, whose nickname was Natasha, were both founders of the massively popular game; 'Marvel' and members of one of the biggest guild in existence in said game; S.H.I.E.L.D., and along with both older and newer players they will make gamer history as the guild; Avengers. /Kind of a fusion with SAO./
1. Prologue

Marvel the Game

Prologue:

Clint had stumbled upon the game by accident. He had been in GameStop* looking for some upgrade to his current NerveGear game 'Lords of Twostone'**, in which he was still fairly new, even if he'd had his NerveGear for years now and knew it's functions to the last detail.

The fourty five year old man had literlly fallen over the box in the store he was visiting, and had been forced to buy it, after ruining the exterior, by the cute, but very scary lady behind the cashcounter.

It was only when he got home, after having bought the, what he thought, extremely expensive game, did he take a look at the crumbled box.

"Marvel," he read aloud. It was a pretty non-descript name and box, which didn't give him any feel for what was inside the exterior.

He however didn't get to open the box that day, as a friend of his that was coming over, chose that moment to make herself announced.

"Hey, Natalia!" He yelled.

…

He had been talking with Natalia for about half an hour, totally forgetting his latest purchase, until said thirty one year old woman made him aware of the discarded, still unopened box.

"I see you have bought the new hot-shot NerveGear game?" She asked, nudging the box with her foot. "It looks kind of damaged though."

"So it's a game then?" He asked, clearly uninterested.

"You are kidding, right?" Natalia said with a blunt tone and a raised eyebrow. "This is the latest hit in the gamerworld! Sadly they're are very expensive, happily I have a very well-paying job."

Clint mused over her words; so she had a version of this game too? And it was some kind of big thing, that he just hadn't heard about? Well, the last thought wasn't so farfetched, Clint never really followed the news and always kept to playing three games maximum.

"First of all; no kidding, I haven't heard of the name before today." He defended himself. "Second of all; what exactly is the theme of this thing?"

"Why don't you open it and find out?" Natalia was giving him one of her patented 'Duh!'-looks.

Clint nudged the box, before picking it up and carefully opening the lid, removing the top layer of bubblewrap and peeking inside.

"What is it then? I only bought the game, and now I'm getting kind of excited by the idea of a whole box full of goodies and merchandise." Natalia stepped forward to look over his shoulder, before diving in and retrieving a mug with a chipped edge. It was very plain and white, with only the word Marvel written on it in red font.

"Well, that's a bust," she muttered, before watching him removing the rest of the contents; a cheatcode arc which would probably come in handy, some kind of book, probably the manual, stickers, some small USBs and finally the game itself.

"Seems like you are already a pro," she grinned and winked at him, but he kind of knew her so well, that he could feel the jealousy and therefore threw the cheatcode arc at her. Se grasped it with surprised fumbling fingers. The only time she wasn't a graceful creature, was at times like these, when she was at a crossroad.

Natalia was silent for a few seconds before nodding her graitude and now it was Clint's time to grin.

"The game is having their official launch this saturday at 8 AM, I will be over with my NerveGear and version of the game by then," she explained before launching into a story from work.

The contents of the box was already packed away in the corner of his gameshelf, forgotten until needed.

Before she left, Natalia said threateningly;"And I expect you to know the basics of the game by then."

...

Clint went to bed, but not before making a reminder-note for himself to check out the game before saturday, and he didn't fall asleep before remembering that he never really found out the gametheme.

...

By saturday Clint knew everything about Marvel, which was probably most complex game, that he had ever heard about, for crying out loud.

First of all, the game constructed your character based on your looks and no modifying existed. Second of all, every bought game were different to each other and unique i their own way, which didn't mean this was a singleplayer game, no, it was definitely multiplayer, but with every game came different stats, background stories, weapons, clothes, strengts, weaknesses and much more for your individual character, which made everyone one of a kind. And when there was the game, an openworld, superhero-themed sandbox, with a vast amount of NPCs. You could be anyone; some hot-shot superhero, the most sadistic asshole bad guy or just blend in with the NPCs and make your everydaylife in the online world.

A new added function was pain. Of course, it wasn't legal to make people feel a lot of pain without reason, so the painfunction was very low, about 1,83% of the pain you cold handle before passing out in real life.

Another cool feature were that it was centered around Earth, and because it was openworld game, you could go anywhere on Earth.

Clint was simply hooked and he could totally understand Natalias earlier words of;"...hotshot NerveGear game…"

The game was so much like real life, with the added element of the superpowered.

'Ding, dong!' sounded the doorbell; it was ten minutes before launch and Clint had already prepared the NerveGear with the nescessary game and his bed along with one for Natalia. He had also eaten a big meal for breakfast, so he wouldn't run on low energy.

"Hey, Clint. Ready to launch?" Natalia had her NerveGear in a bag slung over her left shoulder and looked very excited for a change. Normally it was just her patented 'I'm with an idiot'-face that permanently rested over her features.

"Yes, I have everything ready, we just need to hook up." He smiled at her.

The NerveGear had been very complex when it was first released, but over the years it had been made smaller and perfected. Now it was like a tight beanie with a lot of electronic features and LED lights, so that people wouldn't think you had drifted into a coma or something like that. If it happened, the lights would turn yellow.

They wished each other luck before going into under the spell of sleep.

Notes: First chapter, yay!

* GameStop being this gamerstore in my homecountry, I don't know whereelse it exists, but for the sake of the plot, it's an american store too.  
** Lords of Twostone being a completely fictional game I created only the title of. Feel free to imagine whatever kind of game you want it to be.


	2. Anton Bobs and a Job

Waking up in an artificial world had always been, and would always be, weird. First of all, in a lot of the NerveGear games you were to adjust to the graphics, because sometimes they weren't even near realityseeking, even if the technology had been made.

This time, it was just like being awake, except he was standing in an endless white. Clint was shooting his, extremly realistic, hands an impressed look, before the robotic female voice runged through the infinity room he had been placed in.

"Welcome to 'Marvel'. State your charactername in the box below. Please refrain from going against the regulations."

A pop-up-box appeared before him and he wrote in it with his fingers, since no keyboard came forward. 'Clinton Francis Barton' he wrote, as usual just using his own name, since that made it easier for friends to find him.

"Thank you! To continue this user guide, open your menu. It is opened by conscius thoughts."

This wasn't anything new to the seasoned gamer, who had owned a NerveGear since childhood.

The menu was actually a bit impressive, all sleek design and transparent background.

"Next step is learning about your character. To do that, choose Character Screen by pressing the button C in the menu."

As soon as he pressed it a lot of seperate information in the form of holograms came forward. The one closest to him were a biography, which he was quickly done with. Apparently his character came from an abusive home, before joining a circus and now running around as a mercenary? Right.

He was kind of disappointed about having no superpowers though, even if it seemed he was an unusual specimen still, according to his stats, which were the next window.

'Stats/Power Grid*:

Intelligence: 3

Strength: 2

Speed: 2

Durability: 2

Energy Projection: 1

Fightingskills: 6

Other stats to be aware of:

Eyesight: 7

These are based on the seven step -scale.

Conclusion: Powerlevel 4**'

Clint was happy about his stats. If the manual coming with the game was right, he was near superhuman as a powerlevel 4.

Another one was about his gear. Because the fourty five year old had bought a special edition, he had come with at lot of upgraded gear and five weapons instead of the standard three.

His gear was mainly black with a mix of purple and had some cool accessories, who was mostly just to pimp up his clothes.

His main weapon was the compundbow, who he had two different exemplaries of. One was a 250 pounds compoundbow***, and the other was a 200 pounds, but of lighter weight.

He had also gotten four strapknifes with a belt, a sniper rifle in a design he couldn't recgonise, another knife with a legholster and a set of very thin knifes to put in the custom boots he had gotten.

Aside from apparel and weapons he found a first add kit and 2000 dollars in his inventory.

He chose to use all the apparel he had gotten, along with all his weapmons, the exception being the 250 pounds compoundbow, which he left in the inventory too.

The next hologram were settings, which he didn't feel like changing, since he had always used standard and this wasn't any different, he realised after a look on the display before him.

The next were a basic through of guilds and other functions and features that could become helpful.

It was quickly done, especially since Clint had already read all this.

And now? Now he was ready for his through Marvel's Earth 22-1****.

'Do you want to go to the game?

Yes | No'

He pressed 'Yes'.

…

The world was changing around him; colours, noise and smells, everything was changing. The room he was standing in bye the end of it was simply a dump.

Everything looked trashed or old enough to break if you used it. Was this where he lived? He hoped not, but it was something he could believe, being a mercenary and all.

Still, it wasn't exactly a pleasant place.

A window popped up with a whole biography written on it, if you asked the not so school-smart Clint. Clint had been an highschool drop-out. Ironically he was in this world too. However that didn't mean he was dumb or anything, just got easily bored and were more of a 'do and learn' -guy than a 'watch and learn' -guy.

"This your stay for the night. The motel is called Timothy's, it's in Las Vegas and it's actually one of the nicer places you have slept through the last couple of years. You will be gone by morning without a trace of you ever being there. But before you can pull you disappearing act, there is a job to be done. To get started, find your payer. The name he goes by is Anton Bobs, and you should find him at Flamingo Las Vegas Casino*****, ten streets east of you." Clint shrugged. Seemed like he was going to be killing and working for NPCs for some time.

He looked down himself, before checking the closet and finding nothing. He couldn't very well be running around in this get-up, unless he was a very obvious super, be they bad or good.

After searching fruitlessly, he decided to just steal from another NPC. There had to be a goddamn lawyer or businessman or something that owned a dressjacket in this seedy motel, right?

…

There was, Clint thought to himself, walking out of Timothy's in a nice, very expensive looking suit.

He could get used to being the guy, who didn't live by any rules.

Finding the payer, or really just the casino, was harder than imagined, because in this world people would have to buy a map, not have one in the menu.

He ended up asking this nice, but kind of too much, old lady in exchange for helping her over the busy streetroad of Las Vegas. Her name, displayed above her head, said Tora McDonald.

"Oh dear, I have lived here all my life and Flamingo is not a place a young, nice-looking man such as yourself want to visit. It's all grandeur on the outside, but on the inside it's thiefs the lot of them. ("I insist.") Okay, my dear, just turn left at the end of the street, follow the road 'till you reach the crossroad and when go left again. It's on that street, you can't miss it."

"Thank you," he said and when fled the scene, this lady was either a very old player or a very realistic NPC.

As he followed her directions he kind of realized she was probably a NPC, because by the looks of it, everyone here were just incredibly real acting.

…

Flamingo Las Vegas Casino was a luxurious place to walk into. Everywhere you looked everything had been spraypainted in gold or made as grand-looking as possible.

It was actually kind of scary, if Clint was honest with himself.

Finding John was easier than expected. He hadn't taken too steps, before he was suddenly hauled along by four bulky men. He didn't struggle, even if he could probably take them down right there. It didn't however seem smart to make a scene and the both of his bows was in his inventory, and a weapon might cause some distress for other players of NPCs.

When they finally stopped pulling him along, he was standing in a private room. He could still hear the buzz of people from the casino behind him, from the door that was just closed.

In front of him were a pompous guy wearing a tux and a pair og polished dress-shoes.

"Anton Bobs I presume?" He asked drily.

"You are right in your assumptions, little mercenary." His voice was smooth and charming, if not for the the threatening tone it took on. "However, you're not here for making pleasantries, but because of the job."

He pulled a file out of his jacketpocket and gave it to Clint, who marveled over how real it felt in his hands.

Flipping through it there was a timetable of the victim's rutines, pictures of the unfortunate guy and a heft amount of cash.

"Is it all there?" Clint asked.

"Yes, archer, all of the 500.000 thousand is in there," came the immediate answer. Clint's eyes nearly bulged, this job was unexpectledy wellpaid.

He transferred the money to his inventory.

"I hope you are as good as they say, little guy," he threatened, but Clint upheld his mask of indifference and proffesionanilty. "This is an important kill and I won't have you screwing it up."

Clint nodded and hurried out of there, taking the clear dismissal tone as his cue to leave.

Smoothing out his wrinkled suit, he realized he had gotten his first real kill-mission and he certainly wasn't going to 'screw it up'.

Notes:

*The powergrid actually exists and was S.H.I.E.L.D.s way of classifying people.  
**Powerlevels is another real thing that S.H.I.E.L.D. did.

***It's actually in one of Hawkeye's comics (I think, it could have been a cartoon too) that he uses a 250 pounds compundbow. In this story the villain couldn't fire Clint's bow, because he was too weak.

****Earth 22-1 is my own imagination. I took the idea from the classic DC and Marvel thing where they call alternate universes 'Earth' and then a series of numbers.

*****I stole this name, but I'm making up the rest of it.


End file.
